Insurance premium survey reveals subdued sales

Plan for Life research has shown that flows into the life insurance risk market grew 12.5% during 2010. However, new premium sales sustained a marginal growth pattern.
Companies in the survey showed 2010 inflow increases from $8.3 billion to $9.4 billion. The highest growth rates were Tower (31.5 %), AMP (26.4 %), AIA Australia (19.1 %), BT/Westpac (9.7 %), OnePath Australia (9.4 %) and National Australia Bank/MLC (8.8 %). New premium sales were up only 0.4 % over that period, although Tower’s sales were up 30.5 %, followed by AMP (13.8 %) and AXA Australia (7.7 %).
Plan for Life stated that the individual risk lump sum market continued to experience steady and solid growth due to unabated growth in the housing market. This sector saw premiums increase by 10.2 % year on year, with AIA experiencing growth of 19.9 %, followed by Zurich (13.1 %), Tower (11.1 %) and OnePath (11.0 %). However, sales increased by only 3.2 % over 2010, with AIA (22.9 %), AMP (16.6 %), OnePath (11.2 %), Suncorp (9.6 %) and AXA (8.6 %) reporting the highest growth.
Inflows for the individual risk income market grew 10 % over the year, with BT/Westpac (21.3 %), AIA (19.2 %), OnePath (15.3 %), Zurich (11.5 %) and CommInsure (10.6 %) the best performers. New risk income premium sales were up slightly by 2.2 % year on year. AIA (39.5 %), Macquarie Life (26.7 %), OnePath (13.6 %) and AXA (13.0 %) reported significant increases, Plan for Life stated. However, it noted that AMP and National Australia Bank/MLC saw a decline in sales of 14.1 % and 11.5 % respectively.
Inflows into the group risk market jumped 17.6 % over 2010, with AMP (386.5 %), Tower (63.0 %), AIA (18.9 %), National Australia Bank/MLC (11.9 %) and CommInsure (11.5 %) reporting the highest growth. AMP’s figures were artificially boosted by a reclassification of its business from single to annual premium, Plan for Life noted. Overall, actual new group sales in 2010 were down 4.6 % on the 2009 result due to a lag effect following strong growth in 2009. Tower (59.6 %), AMP (35.3 %) and CommInsure (19.4 %) recorded the best comparative group risk sales performances year on year.

Sourced and edited from Money Management

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